"I am appalled and embarrassed and want to barf that I ever mouthed along to that word."
Billie Eilish has apologized after a video surfaced of her apparently mouthing along to a song as an anti-Asian racial slur is used. The singer posted a statement on her Instagram account addressing the edited compilation of videos, which was widely circulated on TikTok earlier this month. Eilish says the videos in question were recorded when she was 13 or 14 years old. In one clip, Eilish mouthed the word "chink" -- which she claims she didn't know was a slur at the time -- and in another video she apparently imitated an accent.
Seems like sooner or later, somebody always digs up some racist bullshit you did in your young past -- whether you knew it was racist or not. It's like a twisted celebrity rite of passage.
And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.
Baseball Bat Attacker First Accused Asian Muni Driver of Being COVID-19 Positive
Last week in San Francisco, when a bus operator asked three passengers to wear masks aboard the bus, one of the men spat at the driver -- who is Asian -- called him racial slurs and accused him of having coronavirus, before attacking him with a baseball bat. When the driver managed to grab hold of the bat, the man then punched the driver twice in the face. The driver suffered a fractured finger, bruises and pain where he was struck. While bus union insists this was a hate crime, San Francisco police are saying the incident did not appear to be racially motivated. What?
* * *
Caught on Camera: Woman Calls Postal Worker a "Chink"
In Los Altos, California, a woman was caught on camera calling an Asian American postal employee a "chink." In the video, shot by another customer, the woman yells at the USPS worker, "Can you just do your job?! It's simple!" After some more shouting the woman can be heard saying "chink" under her breath. Bystanders in line quickly jump in to denounce the slur. A few seconds later, the woman looks directly into the phone camera and says "chink" again, much louder, and storms out. And now that it's blown up, be on the lookout for the inevitable tearful apology, in which the woman claims she was "having a bad day," and that's "not who she is."
* * *
‘Daredevil’ Actor Peter Shinkoda Claims Jeph Loeb Made Anti-Asian Comments Daredevil actor Peter Shinkoda took a stand on Sunday during #SaveDaredevilCon as he claimed that former head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb said anti-Asian comments during the production of the series. Shinkoda, who played Nobu Yoshioka, talked about how a potential storyline delving into his character's relationship with Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho) got scrapped. "Jeph Loeb told the writers room not to write for Nobu and Gao," Shinkoda said. "He said, 'Nobody cares about Chinese people and Asian people. There were three previous Marvel movies, a trilogy called Blade that was made where Wesley Snipes killed 200 Asians each movie. Nobody gives a shit so don't write about Nobu and Gao.'" As a result, the storyline was dropped. From what I remember about Daredevil... yeah, all this sounds about right.
* * *
SAG-AFTRA Asian American Anti-Hate PSA
In this new public service announcement, SAG-AFTRA members from the Asian American community raise their voices about the current social climate in the country and call for a change.
* * *
The Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack is Now Streaming on Spotify
The entire series soundtrack of ShinichirÅ Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop, composed by Yoko Kanno, is now available on Spotify. Fans know what's up. (If you want to watch or re-watch the series, it's available on Hulu.)
San Francisco home targeted with racist, threatening hate letters.
An Asian American family in San Francisco has been the target of racist, threatening hate mail since putting up a sign in support of "Black Lives Matter" in their window. But they're not backing down.
Debbie Lee says she has had the sign up in the front window of her Forest Knolls/Twin Peaks home since 2015. But over the summer, she started receiving threatening letters about the sign.
The first letter showed up in her mailbox in July. Postmarked with no return address, it declared "BLUE LIVES MATTER! Get rid of your sign or WE will!" By the way, that's a threat.
The second letter said, "It's time to replace your BLM sign. How about CHINK LIVES MATTER."
Vandals spray-painted "CHINKS" on the garage door.
There's nothing quite like someone asshole spray-painting "CHINKS" in giant letters across the front of your house to make you feel welcome in the neighborhood. Over the weekend in Minnesota, a Hmong family's home was targeted by vandals who defaced their garage door and car with hate graffiti.
The incident occurred early Sunday morning at a home in Oakdale, a Twin Cities suburb. The vandals spray-painted the racial slur on the garage door, and "Lick my bulls" [sic] across the side of a car. Really?
TL Xiong, who lives at the home with this parents, posted photos of the vandalism on Facebook. He noted that his family moved in to the house only two months ago and warned the vandals that "karma will get you."
Sidney Chan is accused of kicking Stephen Kent in the face after Kent called him a racial slur.
All right. As a matter of principle, I'm going to emphasize that I can't condone violence. But I'm also not going to be terribly disappointed by the news that a guy got kicked in the face after calling someone a "chink."
In London, 20-year-old Sidney Chan is accused of kicking Stephen Kent in the face -- twice -- during a fight that broke out after Kent called him a "chink" while they were leaving a student bar at Imperial College.
Prosecutors say the altercation was set off when Chan "provoked" Kent by making a comment about his "1980s-style mullet haircut." (I am absolutely dead serious.) But Chan denies making fun of the mullet. He says Kent was the real aggressor, calling him a "chink" before charging at him and throwing punches.
"I never said anything about his hair," Chan said at trial. "He started throwing punches at me after he fell to the ground after I had pushed him. He quickly got back up and he charged at my group and started throwing punches at me."
Come on. COME ON. I'm going to say it again: can we all just mutually agree to retire the expression "chink in the armor" -- especially in reference to anything having to do with China/Chinese/Asians?
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal tweeted a link to a story about the perceived vulnerabilities of Chinese president Xi Jinping, and thought it would be clever to include the phrase "chink in the armor." Seriously? Is this somebody's not-so-sly attempt at slipping in a very obvious racial slur?
The tweet, which was posted on Sunday evening, was quickly deleted. A few hours later, the Wall Street Journal followed up the offending tweet with a perfunctory "no offense was intended" tweet, claiming that their use of a "common idiom" was nothing more than a huge coincidence.
Sometimes, you can encounter hate while just going for walk. Just look down.
Sometimes, you can encounter hate while just going for walk. You don't even to see or talk to anyone. Just look down at the ground and there it is. Like this week in New York, where anti-Asian graffiti was found scratched into sidewalk cement outside a Queens apartment building.
The message read, "ALL YOU CHINK GO BACK TO CHINA!!!"
The vandalism, which was carved into wet cement on the sidewalk outside of the Cherry Manor Condos in Flushing, made local news when it was brought to the attention of City Councilman Peter Koo via social media.
The councilman's office contacted the building owner and the city's Department of Transportation, which dispatched a crew to buff out the sidewalk on Tuesday morning, removing the vandalism
"Don't invite any n****r gals or curry monsters or slanted eye chinks, unless they're hot."
In today's edition of Fraternities Being Totally F*cking Awful... The University of Maryland is investigating a 2014 email allegedly sent by a member of Kappa Sigma, using racist and sexist language to refer to Black and Asian women and encouraging fellow members to have sex with women regardless of consent.
The email, dated January 2014 and written to a group of friends in Kappa Sigma, was posted to the internet this week. It includes racial slurs and graphic comments about wanting to have sex during rush week but not wanting to invite women of certain races, "and above else, f---- consent."
Here's the text of the email (as censored by Huffington Post):
Folks, I've said this before, but can we please retire the phrase "chink in the armor"? I know this is a legit, centuries-old expression, meaning "a vulnerable area," but its usage today just does not look or sound right and makes for awkward moments, regardless of intent. Our latest offender: the United States Army.
On Thursday afternoon, the Army's official Twitter account posted a tweet referring "chinks" in the armor of its special ops capabilities. The tweet, which prompted several accusations of racism, has since been deleted.
City apologizes to resident after using racial slur on parking ticket paperwork.
The city of Pasadena, California is issuing a formal apology to one of its residents after he received documentation for a parking ticket that changed his last name to a racial slur: chink.
Pasadena resident Sean Ching, who grew up in the area, received paperwork regarding a parking ticket that he was trying to fight in December 2013. The letter upheld the citation, but what upset Mr. Ching even more was that his name on the documentation had been changed to "SEAN CHINKS."
For real? There's not a lot of information to go on, but I got this passed along to me, and the simple, bold casual racism of it -- by a representative from a major corporation -- just makes you shake your head.
A woman who recently received a package via UPS discovered that her delivery came with some colorful, racist language. In the delivery documentation, someone -- presumably, the UPS employee responsible for the delivery -- made note that the package was signed for by "CHINK."
Sadly, to some people, two kids enjoying a basketball game will always be just be a couple of "chinks."
Hey, Yahoo! Great job on the new sports app. That "loop" feature is all sorts of meme-making fun. It's just too bad you didn't quite account for the fact that a lot of your users are complete assholes, like the racist piece of shit who created the image above and shared it on the app Saturday night. (I've blocked out the kids' faces.)
Allow me to explain. Yahoo! Sports recently introduced its newly redesigned mobile app, including a "Loop" feature which allows users to create, customize and share GIFs from real time sports footage.
Hooters is te latest restaurant chain getting negative attention for an employee who used a racial slur to refer to an Asian customer. Once again, it's right there on the receipt: A Hooters in Queens Is Sued for Racial Discrimination.
Asian customers in Atlanta received racist caricatures on their coffee cups.
Oh, man. Not this again. Recent racist incidents involving employees at Chick-Fil-A ("CHING CHONG") and Papa John's Pizza ("Lady Chinky Eyes") have had me checking my receipts lately. Some ignorant-ass joker could be mocking you right in front of your face. But hey, why use words for your favorite racial slurs when you can draw them?
Last month at a Starbucks Coffee location in Alpharetta, Georgia, two Korean customers -- who are not native English speakers -- discovered that their barista had identified them by drawing "chinky eyes" on their drinks. You know, where they usually write your name? OH NO THEY DIDN'T. Yes, they did.
Papa John's employee nicknames Asian customer "Lady Chinky Eyes" on receipt.
Minhee, a recent customer at the Papa John's Pizza location on 3477 Broadway in New York City, was given this receipt for her transaction on Friday evening. As you can see, an employee took the liberty of giving her the nickname "lady chinky eyes." An employee who, no doubt, will soon be out of a job.
